Chapter 17 Evolution of information

Information gains experience by instantiating under different
circumstances. This happens at all levels of externalization. During
thoughts and between instantiations, the experience of the instantiation
is abstracted. The experience collected at very abstract level is the
result of an innumerable amount of expressions at concrete level.

Instantiation (externalization) involves the choice of a mapping. This
makes the externalized information structure more restricted than the
original, abstract information. When the externalized structure
externalizes in its turn, the new structure is even more restricted. This
makes it hard for an information structure to externalize more than a few
cycles.
After that, the information gets so restricted that it can hardly exhibit
any activity.

This stagnation point is comparable to the point in which an information
element feels too restricted in a stable organization. It is at the same
time the point where the abstract being feels best the restrictions
imposed by the choices made in the consecutive externalizations
(instantiations).

Creations of animals exhibit some function (a bird nest), creations of man
exhibit already behavior (a machine, a computer virus). The next step is
the creation of living externalizations which express themselves in a way
which is not programmed (mechanisms which are able to create by
themselves).

In the previous chapter, three reasons are described to trigger a new
externalization : 1) thought of better one, 2) excess of energy and 3)
destroyed body.

In this chapter we will concentrate on consecutive externalizations
triggered by the first reason. The choices (mappings) used in such
externalizations differ. Therefore this kind of externalizations cause the
changes responsible for the evolution of information.

Once an externalization is more or less stable, it is basically the second
reason which dominates and causes the "normal" propagation. This
multiplication of the most useful externalizations allows to gather the
bulk of the experience which is required to trigger a new externalization
of the first kind.

After gaining some experience with the current externalization, the
abstract element can have thoughts about a different instantiation. Using
the experience, it can happen that better results are anticipated in the
given circumstances using a different mapping. However, changing the
mapping is not possible when a external organization (organism) is based
upon it. Such a change would require a profound change in the structure of
the organization.

Remember the politician dreaming about starting a new party based upon the
experiences gained in the current party.

Remember the engineer dreaming about starting over the project and base a
new project on the experiences gained in the current project.

The long way out is by waiting until the externalized structures collapse.
At this point, all the abstract experience gained by the externalization
is gathered by the abstract information elements. After this, a next
externalization of the information structure will take the experience
gained by the restrictions into account right from the beginning (early
choices).

Engineers hate the long way out. This should mean that they have to finish
the project, let the resulting product live and only start a new concept
when the product is worn out and does not longer fit the needs.
They often prefer to start the whole thing over using immediately the
experience gained by the current attempt.

Thoughts about other choices in the abstract elements are used to abstract
the gained experience. In normal cases, their effect upon the related
elements is small. Only when the limitation is felt by several related
elements, it can happen that a group of elements consider the same,
different mapping which is anticipated to lead to better results. This can
cause the synchronization of thoughts which are not in correspondence with
the nature of the structure in which the elements reside. Such fields of
synchronized thoughts are harmful for the organization. When they are
maintained, an insulation between the organism and the rebelling elements
will grow. When there is enough energy in the insulated area, it is
possible for the new group to start a new externalization while the other
externalization exist.

The new externalization takes only form when tasks are assigned to
elements which specialize themselves. Before that stage, many
configurations are considered without externalizing them.

The politician suffers from the consequences of some unfortunate initial
choices in the process of externalizing his ideas. At first, he can try to
convince the rest of the party to change course but there is not much
chance. The entire party is built upon these choices and they cannot be
changed without destroying the political party.

In silent moments (insulation), the political leader imagines the party
based upon a different set of choices and with all his experience built in
the choices to start with. When the result looks attractive, the
politician will come back to this idea more frequently and seek ways to
insulate himself from the party to be able to enjoy this thoughts. When
these thoughts grow strong enough, he will decide to maintain one day this
insulation and prepare the creation of a new political party.

It is important to remark that the resign of the political leader not
necessary implies the destruction of the party. The party can live its own
life after the resign of the founder (in a number of cases, the party will
not survive).

Compared to normal propagation, propagation at deeper level gives rise to
an externalization which differs more profoundly form the existing
externalization. This is called a mutation.

The more abstract (more elementary) the level in which the propagation
takes place, the larger the difference between the externalizations of the
information. More fundamental choices cannot be reconsidered at an
external level.

There is a difference between a company created as a daughter of a large
company and a newly founded company created by a former employee of a
large company.

A computer program needs regular adaptation to fit the changing needs of
the users. By these improvements, new versions of the program are created.
Adding new features to an existing program is sometimes difficult because
the program was not designed for it; the changes do not fit in the
structure of the program.

After a number of updates, the program is entirely redesigned taking all
requirements into account.
Although the experience gained by the first program is integrated in the
new program, the new program is not a direct offspring of the first. It is
not a modified version of the first but it is a new externalization of the
abstract information completed by the experience abstracted from the
earlier externalizations..

Early attempts of externalization stuck after a few externalization
cycles. New attempts reach higher stages of externalization. Because both
new and old externalization have the same origin, they are able to
interact. The outermost externalizations are able to use the resulting
structures of previous externalizations as building blocks to express
themselves. Because of the difference in evolution, the older structures
are not, or only partially aware of being used as active components in a
larger plan (we come back to awareness in the next chapter). This is the
situation where the controlling information is much less indurated than
the controlled structures.

A production technique is very young and has almost no "mass" (collected
energy) compared to information of biological life. Yet, a production
technique can be taught to a worker and control the movements of the
worker when applied.

The use of older, more limited structures as components for new structures
has the advantage that a lot of suitable (active) material is readily
available for the new structure to express itself. The disadvantage is the
restricted awareness of the components of what is going on. Only after
longer (very long in our time scale) periods, the entire material base is
renewed and all new elements have the awareness reached at the end of the
previous externalization.

Older structures are used as breeding ground in which the newer
externalizations express themselves. By this, the elements of the breeding
ground do not have the same evolutionary background as the structures
using them to express themselves and to gain experience.

Results of older attempts of externalization are used by new
externalizations. By this, the older structures receive energy by their
functioning in the new organism. This makes them survive long time after
their initial externalization.

The use of elements which do not have the same evolutionary background to
build new bodies makes it difficult to draw a tree of manifestations in
which the propagations at every level are indicated.

I have no insight in this tree of manifestation. It could for example be
that some subatomic particles (neutrons) are really old and primitive
compared to other subatomic particles (electrons). It may also be that
some atoms, or groups of atoms have a different evolutionary background
than others.

A propagation at more abstract level, closer to the root of the tree of
manifestations shows up at the external side as an externalization which
is able to externalize itself in more levels.